France-based Keensight Capital has axed plans to acquire British medical device manufacturer Niox Group.
Last month, the private equity firm tabled an offer to acquire Niox for £345.8m, or £0.81 per share.
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Niox develops a point-of-care device that measures asthma biomarker fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO). In a brief statement issued on 11 April, Keensight said it no longer intended to make a firm offer on Niox in light of the “current macro-economic backdrop”.
Doubtless alluding to President Trump’s announcement of tariffs for the majority of the US’s trading partners this month, Keensight is far from the only company affected by the GOP’s injurious approach to trade policy, which Wall Street analysts fear could precipitate a US recession.
On 9 April, tariffs for most countries, including China, Japan, and the EU as a collective bloc, were due to go into effect. However, barring China, which has been hit with tariff increases of 125% on US imports, the Trump administration tapped the brakes and instead announced there would be a three-month pause on the imposition of the tariffs, bringing a close (for now) to a lacerating stretch that has wiped around $10trn from the global stock markets.
For the major players in the medtech industry, share prices have been riven by the uncertainty stoked by the Trump administration’s ‘at-a-whim’ approach to trade policy. On 9 April, shares in GE HealthCare, which is heavily reliant on the Chinese market, opened a further 1.6% down at $57.79, meaning it is now trading 38% lower than the 2025 market open high in mid-February.
Other major players in the space, including Boston Scientific, Medtronic, and Johnson & Johnson, were all trading 6%-8% down at market open on 9 April in contrast to prices last month.
British portable oxygenator developer Belluscura reported it was scrapping its 2025 revenue guidance due to the tariffs, given that a “significant proportion” of the company’s portable oxygen concentrators, raw materials and components are currently manufactured in China. The announcement caused Belluscura’s stock price to crash by almost 50%.
On 10 April, Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) CEO Scott Whitaker said the association was ‘encouraged’ by the tariff pause, and repeated his hope that AdvaMed could work with the Trump administration to obtain a tariff exemption for the medtech industry.
